‘Vigilante shopkeeper’ cites Charter in his defence

Toronto’s “vigilante shopkeeper” who was charged for detaining a shoplifter says the Criminal Code’s “narrow” definition of a citizen’s arrest is unconstitutional.

David Chen, 36, was arrested last year after he and two co-workers detained Anthony Bennett, 52, for stealing plants from Chinatown’s Lucky Moose Market an hour earlier.

The Criminal Code allows individuals to use reasonable force to protect their property and to make an arrest if someone is found to be “committing a criminal offence on or in relation to that property.”

In documents outlining the defence, Mr. Chen and his lawyer say the definition is “too narrow and restrictive” because it is prescribed as lawful only while the crime is being committed “as opposed to having reasonable grounds to believe that the offence has been committed.”

Lawyer Peter Lindsay says the Criminal Code definition is of no effect because it would bring the Constitution into disrepute.
The Constitution Act , including Charter rights, supersedes any other Canadian law.

“Part of your fundamental liberties is your right to stop other people from committing crimes against you. […] I don’t think allowing yourself to be robbed blind by people like Anthony Bennett would be unreasonable force,” Mr. Lindsay said.

During the incident on May 23, 2009, Bennett was caught on camera stealing plants from Mr. Chen’s store. When Bennett returned to the market an hour later, Mr. Chen and the co-workers confronted him, tied him up and locked him in a van until police arrived.

Mr. Chen was charged with assault, forcible confinement, kidnapping and carrying a concealed weapon (Mr. Chen had a box cutter attached to his belt while he worked). The latter two charges were subsequently dropped.

The two co-workers also face charges of assault and forcible confinement. All three men are to go to trial on June 21.

The Crown has up until five days before trial to address the defence argument on the constitutionality of citizen arrests.

Bennett pleaded guilty to theft last August. He has been charged since with theft from another store in Chinatown last October.

In a similar case, Winnipeg resident Kwang Soo Kim, 62, was charged with manslaughter for striking an alleged shoplifter in his grocery store with a baseball bat last month.

Geraldine Beardy, 29, slipped into a coma in hospital and died five days later.